Today I revisited the doctor to remove the cask and make new photos. The bone didn't heal well and the doctor seemed surprised. He said it was rare that this kind of fracture would not heal well.

I am sure more of you have broken a bone once they got ME/CVS. How did the bone heal for you? Did you get complications?

I was diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency as well last year, so that might not help either. The deficiency was treated though and my levels are now normal.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised my body doesn't heal well, it's busy doing other stuff...

Really sorry to hear about the bone not healing. I had a serious accident with fractures and dislocations. The recovery is still ongoing and that was from nearly 10 years ago. Although the bones did knit in the end, I am still in pain around the sites of all the injuries. Not only were the bones broken and / or dislocated but all the muscles, ligaments in the area pulled or damaged. This "secondary" problem was ignored and not understood by the Orthopeadic and other doctors I saw.

My advice would be to have as little in the way of treatment as much as you can. For example, in my case, seeing an Osteopath and other types of people who wanted to work directly on the sites of the injuries (like a Physio) made it much worse.

I did find therapies that helped in the end and the pain/dislocations have become better but in the short term (i.e. the first two years) I wish I'd left them alone more.

Definitely strengthen the area as much as possible though with bandages and dressings if they are not going to put another cast on. Also rest it as much as possible and don't do any exercises to "strengthen muscles " or see a Physio for any hands on work (for me that made it much worse). An Orthopeadic Physio eventually did understand this and showed me how to bind my knees in the end to help stop them dislocating.

Accupunture and trigger point therapy helped me in the end. The bindings and dressings and resting the area also was good.

Really sorry to hear about the bone not healing. I had a serious accident with fractures and dislocations. The recovery is still ongoing and that was from nearly 10 years ago. Although the bones did knit in the end, I am still in pain around the sites of all the injuries. Not only were the bones broken and / or dislocated but all the muscles, ligaments in the area pulled or damaged. This "secondary" problem was ignored and not understood by the Orthopeadic and other doctors I saw.

My advice would be to have as little in the way of treatment as much as you can. For example, in my case, seeing an Osteopath and other types of people who wanted to work directly on the sites of the injuries (like a Physio) made it much worse.

I did find therapies that helped in the end and the pain/dislocations have become better but in the short term (i.e. the first two years) I wish I'd left them alone more.

Definitely strengthen the area as much as possible though with bandages and dressings if they are not going to put another cast on. Also rest it as much as possible and don't do any exercises to "strengthen muscles " or see a Physio for any hands on work (for me that made it much worse). An Orthopeadic Physio eventually did understand this and showed me how to bind my knees in the end to help stop them dislocating.

Accupunture and trigger point therapy helped me in the end. The bindings and dresses and resting the area also was good.

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Thanks for sharing your story. It sounds like you have been through a lot. Were you already ill with ME/CFS 10 years ago?

I got a new cask today and I was able to walk with a cask as soon as 1 week after my accident. So I have been walking a lot and I hope that helps. The question is if I should rest more... the doctor didn't think so, so I will follow his advice I guess.

I will certainly take your advice regarding treatments: I am not going to go to a physio or something similar. I will remain with this doctor for now and let nobody else touch me

Hi Jemal, when you say that your Vitamin D is now normal, do you know if this normal is based on the new reference ranges that the modern scientific evidence is now recommending? Most doctors believe that Vitamin D levels of 30ng/ml (75 nmol/L) is enough, this has been proven to be completely wrong and optimal levels should be 50-80 ng/ml (125-200nmol/L) its possible that if your doctor has only raised your levels to that of the old reference ranges, that you are still very vitamin D deficient which will seriously affect the ability of your bones to heal as well as numerous other health problems like fatigue etc, more information on this can be found here

In this article by Dr Mirza he states that he has cured thousands of patients chronic fatigue by treating their missed Vitamin D deficiencies which he finds by using the higher reference ranges recommended by the modern science, and that 70% of cases of fibromyalgia are actually caused by Vitamin D deficiency and can be cured with correct treatment, this article the myth of chronic fatigue syndrome by Shirwan A Mirza can be found by scrolling down this page http://www.bmj.com/content/334/7605/1221.extract/reply

Yes, I had ME when that accident occurred. Doctors in the UK didn't know how to treat someone with ME who had an accident, apart from the Psych lobby who tried to attribute all the healing difficulties to their area. This was a major obstacle to my obtaining medical treatment.
Hope you fare better.

I'm one with a good report. My husband is moderately ill with ME/CFS. For reference he is not quite housebound but nearly. He only goes out to medical appts. and his once a week or so 45 min. ride around the country roads on his little scooter. In March he slipped on some gravel coming into our driveway, fractured his right arm and his right upper femur at his hip just disintegrated. He is 74 with weak bones, so that was not a surprise.

The good news is, after having the top of his femur replaced with a new 'ball' he recovered more quickly than expected for his age. They thought he would spend 4-6 weeks recuperating in hospital, as it is quite hard to get around with both right leg and right arm out of commission, but he came home after 3 weeks.

As caregiver for an ME/CFS patient I got a wee smile from the concern of the nursing staff when I signed off to bring him home. They did think it a bit early and were not at all sure I could manage. However, I did notice pretty fast that someone recovering from a broken leg is much easier to take care of than an ME/CFS patient. Yup, he was a bit challenging still, but the broken bits were the least of it

It's now 3 months and the broken bits have healed very well. Obviously the hip is still not great for motion, but he can put his own socks on now and is able to walk just as well as pre-surgery, sort of the ME/CFS shuffle.

p.s. Unfortunately, the whole commotion has taken a toll on him and the ME/CFS has taken a downward turn. Just more tired and more pain. He picked up a rash on his bum in the hospital, we thought just from lying in bed with those lovely rubber mattress covers, but 3 months later it has not gone, drives him out of his mind with burning pain and nothing seems to help. The dermatologist finally took a small biopsy last week and thinks perhaps antibiotics are in order. The results will be back in a few days. I'm kinda hoping this is the outward expression of one of his no doubt many infections and perhaps they will give him something that might help more than the rash. Not to treat the ME/CFS of course, heaven forbid. But my fingers are crossed anyway.

I'm one with a good report. My husband is moderately ill with ME/CFS. For reference he is not quite housebound but nearly. He only goes out to medical appts. and his once a week or so 45 min. ride around the country roads on his little scooter. In March he slipped on some gravel coming into our driveway, fractured his right arm and his right upper femur at his hip just disintegrated. He is 74 with weak bones, so that was not a surprise.

The good news is, after having the top of his femur replaced with a new 'ball' he recovered more quickly than expected for his age. They thought he would spend 4-6 weeks recuperating in hospital, as it is quite hard to get around with both right leg and right arm out of commission, but he came home after 3 weeks.

As caregiver for an ME/CFS patient I got a wee smile from the concern of the nursing staff when I signed off to bring him home. They did think it a bit early and were not at all sure I could manage. However, I did notice pretty fast that someone recovering from a broken leg is much easier to take care of than an ME/CFS patient. Yup, he was a bit challenging still, but the broken bits were the least of it

It's now 3 months and the broken bits have healed very well. Obviously the hip is still not great for motion, but he can put his own socks on now and is able to walk just as well as pre-surgery, sort of the ME/CFS shuffle.

p.s. Unfortunately, the whole commotion has taken a toll on him and the ME/CFS has taken a downward turn. Just more tired and more pain. He picked up a rash on his bum in the hospital, we thought just from lying in bed with those lovely rubber mattress covers, but 3 months later it has not gone, drives him out of his mind with burning pain and nothing seems to help. The dermatologist finally took a small biopsy last week and thinks perhaps antibiotics are in order. The results will be back in a few days. I'm kinda hoping this is the outward expression of one of his no doubt many infections and perhaps they will give him something that might help more than the rash. Not to treat the ME/CFS of course, heaven forbid. But my fingers are crossed anyway.

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Thanks pamb. There's still hope for me left, or so it seems

Like your husband my ME/CFS has become a lot worse since breaking my ankle though. I have heard from some (healthy) friends that they felt really tired when they broke their ankles, so I am hoping it's just extra fatigue because of the stress placed on the body, because of the healing going on.

I also developed a nasty rash, but it's on the top of my foot, beneath the cask, where I can't get to it. Really nice...

Nope, and it's been 4 & 1/2 years since the The Broken Foot Episode :sad: I've had a gazillion blood tests and usually the docs just say "everything's fine" except for one who told me I had Adult Mono/Epstein Barr

2 weeks ago, my doctor said my bones didn't heal well, he looked worried and started talking about maybe having to use bone growth stimuli after a few more weeks of wearing a cask. Today the cask was removed and the woman taking the pictures told me the break was barely visible anymore. The doctor was enthusiastic this time and he let me go home without a cask. I probably won't have to see him anymore. Things can change a lot in 2 weeks time...

So another update. Once the cast was removed, I quickly developed erysipelas or: acute streptococcus bacterial infection. Apparently I had a small wound somewhere on my feet (probably caused by friction from the cask) and now my feet and part of my leg are swollen, red and inflamed. Got strong and specific antibiotics to treat the infection, if this doesn't work in 1 or 2 days, hospital is taking me in...

I curse my immune system

So who gets eryspiselas? It's regularly seen in children, the eldery and immunocompromised people... of course I am neither a child, nor elderly. I am in the prime of my life and should not have to deal with all this nonsense.

On the positive side: I can see if another antibiotic does anything for my ME/CFS. I had 3 now in the past half year, they are handing them out like candy!

Ouch, Jemal - that's dreadful. Glad your doctor picked up that you had the infection though.

It does seem that any accident has repercussions for the PWME that we just don't know about.

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Actually, my doctor released me when I already had a weird mark on my foot. I showed it to him, but he said it was nothing. Of course that was the beginning of the infection. It started spreading rapidly, so I made another appointment. The infection itself is pretty hard to miss at the moment

Anyway, I want to avoid hospitals like the plague now. I have dealt with a hospital twice (not counting several visits to doctors, because of regular tests for ME/CFS) in the past 10 years and twice I left with a nasty bacterial infection. The first time I had a wisdoom tooth extracted and I got a very nasty infection that turned into an abcess the size of a tennis ball inside my cheek. The doctor back then was amazed by it and apparently caught off guard, because it took over 5 weeks, before he got the infection under control. Those were the worst 5 weeks in my life, I was in constant agony and the (pretty heavy) painkillers did nothing.

Hopefully this infection can be controlled more easily. The doctor was already talking about taking me in for 10 days as this infection can kill tissue and ultimately even me when treatment does not work fast enough

So two reasons now for me to avoid hospitals:

1. They got bad germs there and they are bad for us.
2. Hospital staff doesn't know anything about ME/CFS or doesn't take it seriously.